Is Your Life Plan Selfish?

At Building Champions we have a commitment to helping our clients maintain a balanced approach to their life and their business. One of the ways we do this is by asking our clients to complete a Life Planning exercise early on in the coaching relationship.

Through this exercise they identify the most important relationships in their life that they want to be more purposeful in growing and developing. Key relationships like a spouse, children, parents, and friends are often listed as accounts in a client’s life plan.

However, many of my clients struggle to create specific disciplines and commitments that will lead to stronger and healthier relationships with their friends and loved ones. They often find themselves creating disciplines and commitments that are centered on their likes and what they love to do. Unfortunately, these types of self-centered disciplines produce false hope and lead to frustration when the desired end result is not achieved.

In order to help my clients create meaningful disciplines I recommend they shift their focus and ask some basic questions:

Activities – What does this person like to do for recreation, exercise, fun or just to relax?

Communication – What is this person’s communication style? Are they more introverted or extroverted? What sort of setting allows them to open up and share their thoughts and feelings?

Love Language – How does this person receive love? Are they someone that feels loved when they hear words of affirmation, receive a thoughtful gift, spend quality time with you, are served by you, or when they get to be close to you physically?

There are times when a client does not know the answer to these questions and must humble themselves to admit this and go and discover the answers by talking to the other person. What a great demonstration of love and care to ask your key relationships these questions!

If you focus on these areas and answer the questions above when you create disciplines and commitments, you will create a Life Plan that positions you for long-term growth and joy in the key relationships in your life.